Friday, February 27, 2004

I couldn't figure out why I liked this column from a student journalist at the Oregon Daily Emerald until I recognized the familiar ring: It sounded a lot like me at my college paper back in 1985. Poor kid. Despite the crankiness beyond his years, he just might make it in the news biz. Here's an excerpt from eager young news cadet Travis Willse:

For one, given that most students are just beginning their tenures in the arena of public dialogue, unjustifiable zealotry can usually be chalked up to the impetuousness of youth and novelty. Moreover, I naively suggest that students calling for an end to nanotechnology research because it has potential military applications, or for a stop to animal research because they believe it has no material value, do so largely out of concern for the quality of the world around them. (Professors promulgating irresponsible rhetoric don't have this excuse.) But the road to the hell that is philosophical incoherence is paved with good intentions.